Winnipeg, Manitoba: Working towards a Basic Income for Manitoba and Canada

On 5 February 2015 the Manitoba Institute for Policy Research of the University of Manitoba hosted an event entitled “Working towards a Basic Income for Manitoba and Canada”, as part of its Policy, Pizza & a Pint Series.

Evelyn Forget -the Winnipeg Free Press

The session featured Evelyn Forget (Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba), Jurgen De Wispelaere (Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University), and Jessica Dumas (Aboriginal Chamber of Commerce, Winnipeg). The evening’s programme was moderated by Shannon Sampert, Perspectives and Politics Editor, Winnipeg Free Press.

The basic (guaranteed) income model of economic security for all has been gaining attention in policy circles across Canada. This model would provide a minimum income for all Manitobans and Canadians instead of the government’s current piecemeal approach to social assistance and income support programs.

The panel reviewed Manitoba’s experience with basic income through the ‘Mincome’ pilot project based in Manitoba in the late 1970s, and discussed its potential for implementation in the current climate.

About Karl Widerquist

Karl Widerquist has written 950 articles.

Karl Widerquist is an Associate Professor of political philosophy at SFS-Qatar, Georgetown University, specializing in distributive justice—the ethics of who has what. Much of his work involves Universal Basic Income (UBI). He is a co-founder of the U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network (USBIG). He served as co-chair of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN) for 7 years, and now serves as vice-chair. He was the Editor of the USBIG NewsFlash for 15 years and of the BIEN NewsFlash for 4 years. He is a cofounder of BIEN’s news website, Basic Income News, the main source of just-the-facts reporting on UBI worldwide. He is a cofounder and editor of the journal Basic Income Studies, the only academic journal devoted to research on UBI.
Widerquist has published several books and many articles on UBI both in academic journals and in the popular media. He has appeared on or been quoted by many major media outlets, such as NPR’s On Point, NPR’s Marketplace, PRI’s the World, CNBC, Al-Jazeera, 538, Vice, Dissent, the New York Times, Forbes, the Financial Times, and the Atlantic Monthly, which called him “a leader of the worldwide basic income movement.”
Widerquist holds two doctorates—one in Political Theory form Oxford University (2006) and one in Economics from the City University of New York (1996). He has published seven books, including Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy (Edinburgh University Press 2017, coauthored by Grant S. McCall) and Independence, Propertylessness, and Basic Income: A Theory of Freedom as the Power to Say No (Palgrave Macmillan 2013). He has published more than a twenty scholarly articles and book chapters.
Most Karl Widerquist’s writing is available on his “Selected Works” website (works.bepress.com/widerquist/). More information about him is available on his BIEN profile and on Wikipedia. He writes the blog "the Indepentarian" for Basic Income News.

The views expressed in this Op-Ed piece are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of Basic Income News or BIEN. BIEN and Basic Income News do not endorse any particular policy, but Basic Income News welcomes discussion from all points of view in its Op-Ed section.